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Indiana, USA: GOP Leadership Delays Vote on Marriage Equality Ban

Written by scott on February 17th, 2013

Looks like Indiana marriage equality advocates have gotten a bit of a reprieve from the GOP, as republican leadership in the state has decided to delay a vote to ban gay marriage in Indiana until 2014. The Indy Channel reports:

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, and Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, made the announcement Thursday afternoon. If the proposal passes either this year or next, voters would get the final say through a November 2014 referendum. But if lawmakers approved the amendment this year, they couldn’t tweak its language in 2014, even if the Supreme Court determines that all or portions of it are unconstitutional. Bosma and Long have both said they prefer to wait until 2014.

But this is not a true “win” for the LGBT community:

Opponents of writing the ban into the state constitution claimed a temporary victory, even though both leaders made it clear they will be pushing the issue next year if they get a green light from the Supreme Court. With decisive Republican majorities in both chambers and large numbers of Democrats who supported the ban when it first came up for a vote in 2011, the measure is all but guaranteed to clear the General Assembly a second time if it is brought up for a vote. That confidence was reflected by supporters of the ban like American Family Association of Indiana Executive Director Micah Clark, who declared: “A delay may be a disappointment, but it is not a defeat.”

Hopefully the Supreme Court will render the whole thing moot when it hands down its decisions in June or July.